Gap in the Door Model3, how do I fix it?

[wildirishtime]

The doors shut nicely, touch in the front, but I can see about
3/4" of daylight out the bottom. I'm a little afraid to start 'tweaking'
the door and burst a weld.

Is this a common problem, if so what's the safe solution? It's
just too far to 'fill' with weatherstrip.

[SkyPirate]

just from experience , I've hit the wall at 100 mph with a 4130 tube chassis late model,.no welds broke but it twisted the tubes like a pretzel at point of impact..granted this was .090 1.5" and 2" 4130,..the doors on the fox's are probably .035 or .028,..you could gradually tweak it not in one spot but in increments from the welded joint towards the bottom,.just be careful you don't dimple the tube, I have also formed .035 1/2" OD 4130 into a 25" Radius for a rudder cold and by hand,..the memory in 4130 is minimal on the smaller diameter and thin wall tubing,..meaning if you bend a 18 inch long piece 1 inch out of striaght ,.it will spring back roughly 1/2 of the inch or 1/2 of the applied bend,..the closer you tweek it to the welded joint the more the end of the arm ( bottom of the door) will move,.. you can hold the bottom of the door with one hand about half way open and take the palm of your other hand and push out below the welded joint a little at a time ..checking the bottom gap between tweeks.

[t j]

Your door frames might be aluminum. You can check with a magnet. Mine are. Here's a quote from the builder's manual. "It is permissable to bend the door frame to match the shape of the door opening".

I bent the door tubing by bending it over my knee being careful to not include any welds in the area being bent. They bent real easy but I didn't have the skins on yet.

[SkyPirate]

Not trying to cause a fuss ,..but one of the tests for AWS certification I had to do a weld and the weld was subjected to being folded, X rayyed,stretched....practically everything except invited to dinner ,..I'd like to think the welds on an aircraft could hold up to the same punishment ussually the material that was welded ( if the weld is done properly) will fail prior to a weld failing ,.especially on a material that has low carbon ..or any weldable aluminum . this does not include casted materials,..which I don't believe any are used on any part of this aircrafts welded airframe


Chase

[Pilot4Life]

Chase is right about the weld being stronger than the material. However, I believe TJ was talking about not bending near the welds because of the greater strength; and higher probability of creasing the material the closer to the weld you "tweek" it.

As always, pictures being worth what they are, we'd love to see your issue as others may be in the same boat